My memories of the south are from Selma, Alabama from 66-67. I was a military brat at Craig AFB, and no one connected with the federal government was very popular. After we were refused service at the Selma Del, we stayed on the base, ordered clothes from JC Penny and traveled to Florida for vacations.
I remember tar paper shacks, and driving down dirt roads where folks came out of what I assumed were barns or stables to stare at us. There was breath-taking poverty, but there was also good...walking with friends to the pool during the summer (the 2 TV stations we sometimes got didn’t show much) or running thru the woods to the Boy Scout camp to ‘borrow’ their canoe and paddle around the lake.
Conservatism is about conserving the good while having the discernment to know and reject the bad.
The ‘war on poverty’ helped get rid of tar paper shacks, but we’ve also lost families and a work ethic. We have computers and TV and can see what is happening from afar, but don’t know our neighbors’ names.
I have mixed feelings about the old south...
Many of those tar paper shacks have been replaced by projects...even in small towns....drive through Hayneville, AL some time.....it’s sad...many escaped the grinding poverty by moving to the city and taking decent paying jobs(including my parents)....The one thing i hate to hear stories about is how unbelievably good the fishing was in the Gulf back in the 40’s and 50’s....heck it was still good when i was a kid in the 60’s and 70’s ;)
I grew up near Athens, Alabama...in the 1970s. Its almost like the concept of “BC” and “AD”...because Athens and the south today....isn’t anything like the Athens of the 1970s. There is no comparison...things have improved and changed to a huge positive throughout the entire region.
Years ago...if you were smart enough to attend a local college...the only good local jobs were school teacher jobs or Browns Ferry. Today...Huntsville is a mecca for technology and military-related jobs.
Medical? In the old days....if you had anything drastic...you drove to Birmingham or Nashville. Today...you can have almost any procedure in the world done there locally. Almost every community has doctor-support...something that didn’t exist in 1970.
Want to travel? In 1970...you had to be ultra-rich to afford airline tickets in the local area. I knew of no one who travled by air. Most still drove or rode Greyhound. Today....more than half the local population takes a trip per year via the local airport...to Aruba or Dallas or Paris.
Its still true that some hardcore southern attitudes remain...but they have been watered down to some degree. You can still depend on your neighbor when you need their help. You can still count on southern hospitality when its necessary. You can still find friendly faces in every crowd. A front porch is still the best place to make new friends.
I'll tell you what, I grew up in the Midwest during the fifties and sixties, and in my old hometown of La Crosse, Wisconsin I remember seeing a lot of decrepit homes including tar-paper shacks. Probably not as many as some other parts of the U.S, but life has improved in all parts of the country and not just the South. If nany people could go back in time and look at their old hometowns, I'm sure they'd be stunned at the difference between what is now and what was.